[Virtual reality and the sense of spatial and especially social presence that it can create is ideal for immersive language learning, as explored in this story from the Los Angeles Times; see the original version for two more pictures. –Matthew] [Image: Immerse is a virtual reality language-learning tutoring platform that launched in February. It currently focuses on helping companies in Taiwan teach Mandarin-speaking employees English but has plans to expand. Credit: Photo courtesy of Immerse.] Believing virtual reality is a promising tool for learning languages, companies, colleges invest By Ada Tseng April 3, 2019 When Quinn Taber was growing up…

[Digital Bodies reports on an amazing facility for studying presence and raises interesting questions about the future of large-scale VR and MR. See the original version of this story for a second image and a 7:13 minute video.–Matthew] Elbedome: Europe’s Largest VR Lab By Emory Craig April 3, 2019 If you like virtual reality or 3D experiences, then Europe’s largest VR lab is definitely where you want to be. It would be a storyteller’s or gamer’s paradise, except that the facility is designed for use with industrial models. Developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation, Elbedome is…

[This short story from Science Magazine reports on a new use of VR for human-robot swarm interaction; see the original version for a 1:30 minute video, follow the link in the story to read the abstract and full paper in arXiv, and watch a 3:54 minute video via YouTube. –Matthew] Ever dream of controlling robot swarms? This new virtual reality headset could help By Edd Gent March 29, 2019 Robot swarms could revolutionize everything from search and rescue missions to mining, but figuring out how to oversee so many moving parts is tough. A new approach lets people control tiny,…

[As with most stories about presence and sexuality, this one from VentureBeat raises a variety of psychological, sociological, technological and ethical issues. See the original version for a second image, and Vimeo for a 0:21 minute video. Note the related developments mentioned in the last paragraph; for more about Cardi-Bot see CamSoda’s website and coverage in The Next Web; and for more on VIRP, see CamSoda and The Verge. For an unusual story about inverse presence related to sexuality see a separate new story in Yahoo! Entertainment. –Matthew] CamSoda’s Camoji lets cam models hide behind animated avatars Dean Takahashi March…